Former Kaduna State Governor, Alhaji Balarabe Musa
FOURTEEN opposition parties under the aegis of
Credible Alternative Alliance on Thursday in
Abuja said it was “too early” for the
administration of President Muhammadu Buhari
to be relying on foreign countries for support
and direction on certain policy issues pertaining
to governance.
The CAA, which also includes 13 civil society
organisations, restated their resolve to provide
a credible opposition to the All Progressives
Congress.
Congregrating under the CAA are the Social
Democratic Party, Peoples Redemption Party,
Fresh Democratic Party, Nigeria Advance Party,
People’s Salvation Party, Change Advocacy
Party, United National Party for Development,
Peoples Progressive Party and the Action Party
of Nigeria.
A former governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji
Balarabe Musa; elder statesman, Dr. Tunji
Braitwaite and former Minister of Finance, Chief
Olu Falae, who spoke at a press briefing by the
National Coordinator CAA, Dr. Damian
Ogbonna, on Thursday, said Buhari’s
administration’s “ability and readiness to
meaningfully govern Nigeria remain in doubt.”
The elder statesmen said, “We note that APC
appears to want to cultivate and rely too much
on the support of foreign governments. This is
not good for the sovereignty of our nation. CAA
calls upon APC to rely less on foreign support.
The party should do more to cultivate domestic
support and more so from political parties in
the country. You cannot govern effectively
when you do so alone; it is not sustainable.
“In conclusion, we wish the new administration
well. However, its ability and readiness to
meaningfully govern Nigeria remain in doubt.
We pray, wait and hope for clarity in the days
to come.
“Both the President and other leaders of APC
have been in government for decades to
warrant knowing exactly what they want to do
and how they want to do it. Even those of us
here at CAA with less than a year into our
formation do have bold and visionary plan upon
which we predicate our drive to govern
Nigeria.”
According to them, when people lay claim to
the ability to solve problems, it is taken for
granted that they have diagnosed the problem
and have ready solutions “otherwise, it
amounts to a claim in deception and an
exercise in futility.”
The CAA, according to its promoters, is formed
to defend and advance progressive, democratic
and patriotic entities and ideals in Nigeria
“against reactionary tendencies of a rudderless
and immensely corrupt governing system.”
Ogbonna said that after a careful review of the
inaugural speech of Buhari and the current
state of the nation, the CAA found the speech
“embarrassingly tall on promises but
depressingly short on vision and boldness.”
He said, “We searched for a silver lining in the
speech laying out a new framework for the
emergence of the new Nigeria of our dreams,
and found none. There is no qualitative
difference between the 2015 Presidential
Inauguration speech and the inaugural
speeches of past presidents.
“The President talked about enormous
challenges; insecurity, pervasive corruption, fuel
and power shortages and so on, but in no
paragraph of his speech did he lay out new
initiatives, new directions, new structures, new
federation, new constitution or even new sets
of legislation to tackle these enormous
challenges.”
Source : punch
